Mayors from across the state were stunned today when the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas Homan, went on Fox News and threatened to jail and prosecute elected officials in so-called sanctuary cities who do not fully cooperate with federal authorities in rounding up and deporting undocumented immigrants.

When I asked Austin mayor Steve Adler for a response, he characterized Homan’s remarks as un-American. “Threatening to jail political opponents, especially for laws they aren’t breaking, is not the America I grew up in,” he said. “Austin is the safest big city in Texas, and we follow the law. I will oppose anti-immigrant policies, regardless of the personal consequences, because spreading fear and making threats makes us all less safe.”

San Antonio Mayor Ron Mayor Nirenberg said that it’s up to the federal government to enforce immigration laws, not the local police force. “I trust our police department’s guidance on the proper way to ensure public safety to the best of our ability. Community policing requires the community’s trust in the police department,” Nirenberg said. “It is unfair to punish local law enforcement for the federal government’s failure to do its job.”

During his weekly news conference, Turner said that remarks such as Homan’s do not create a “unified America.” Houston is the most diverse city in the United States, he said, and anyone living in Houston will be treated as a Houstonian. “We have to be very careful when you start talking about jailing and prosecuting elected officials,” Turner continued. “You talk about transparency, and then you start talking about jailing people for being diverse and respecting the diverse society in which we live. That’s going a bit far.”

Turner also reiterated that he will not be using the Houston Police Department to enforce federal immigration laws. “I’ve said repeatedly that HPD is not ICE, and HPD is not going to be ICE. Does that make us a sanctuary city?”

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings told the Dallas Morning News that Homan’s statements were “total hogwash.” Dallas already cooperates with ICE, he said. “No one is going to be arrested, especially here in Dallas. We’re not a sanctuary city. We cooperate with ICE. This is basically rattling a saber to make good sound bites.”

“This isn’t the America I grew up in,” Homan said in the Fox interview. “We got to take these sanctuary cities on. We got to take them to court. And we got to start charging some of these politicians with crimes.”

Homan was reacting to a new California sanctuary state law signed by Democratic governor Jerry Brown. He also expressed disgust that a jury had recently found Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, an undocumented immigrant who had been deported multiple times, innocent in the killing of Kate Steinle. The jury found that Zarate shot Steinle by accident as she walked on a San Francisco pier in 2015, but Homan blamed lax sanctuary city attitudes for the jury’s verdict.

At the request of Governor Greg Abbott, last year’s Texas legislature passed a so-called sanctuary cities law to allow for the removal of any local official who did not fully cooperate with ICE. Known as SB4, it has been challenged in federal court by multiple Texas cities. A federal court in San Antonio blocked implementation of most of the law, but the state has appealed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Comments

roadgeek

What did the family of Kate Steinle think of Homan’s remarks?

SpiritofPearl

Lame . . . Breitbart bubba blatheration.

SeeItMyWay

I have never read one word Breitbart has published. I did see excerpts of several interviews he gave before he died, so when I put myself in Mr. Steinle’s shoes and reflect on how I might feel about losing my own beautiful daughter due to a shot fired, purposely or not, by an undocumented man who had been deported several times and recently released to the streets of San Francisco, I get angry. I would be looking for scalps, and I mean that literally. We either have laws or we don’t.

BCinBCS

JJ: “…I get angry. I would be looking for scalps, and I mean that literally.”

Do you also get angry and look for scalps when, say, a man is gunned down on his own front porch from what, from the video, appears to be fifty to sixty feet by a scared, trigger-happy policeman in Wichita, Kansas?

SpiritofPearl

Not if he’s black . . .

Tejasguitarman

Then you’re sick & twisted in the head

SpiritofPearl

There are those who believe POC are less than human. I’m not one of them. Are you?

Tejasguitarman

I most certainly am not! I cannot stand racists or religious zealots. It appears that I may have misinterpreted your initial reply to BC thinking that you condone such atrocities on POC. Please accept my humble apology if I was in error. Happy New Year!

SpiritofPearl

Same to you!

SpiritofPearl

Would you have the same empathy for the Steinle family if she had been murdered by a white American citizen?

roadgeek

SOP, your dismissive attitude toward the family of an innocent woman killed by an illegal alien is callous, reprehensible and vile. I sincerely hope that neither you, nor a member of your family, suffers injury or loss at the hands of a criminal illegal alien. You should be ashamed of yourself. Steinle’s family has suffered greatly, and all you do is sneer.

SpiritofPearl

I am not the least bit dismissive of the Steinle family’s suffering, but I’m 99% certain you are dismissive of the suffering of black folks murdered by the police – Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Philando Castile come to mind.

I saw your post on American Renaissance, the racist website, a couple of years ago. I have no respect for your opinions.

Fantasy Maker

Awesome! All I know is that if I violated Federal law, I would be jailed.

St. Anger

Just like Mike Flynn?

oblate spheroid

Yes, but by the Feds. That’s the issue. Immigration law enforcement is the responsibility of ICE, a federal agency, and not local police and courts.

Mary

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not_Bridget

Take time out from your regular work duties to act like an ICE agent. Otherwise, face prosecution….

WUSRPH

Some from the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s 10th Amendment Center should send this guy a copy of their literature since his own lawyers don’t appear to be doing the job as even that bunch of right-wing radicals knows that the US Supreme Court has repeatedly held that under the 10th Amendment the Federal Government MAY NOT REQUIRE state or local governments to enforce federal laws.

Jed

that 10th amendment is so cray-cray. them federalists love it until they don’t.

BCinBCS

Pressure on the leaders of sanctuary cities is simply another manifestation of the reaction of conservatives to irrational fear. It’s sad that irrational fear is, indeed, still fear because fear can cause people to do terrible things.

Immigrants from Central America are fleeing to the Unites States out of genuine fear for their lives. They are not trying to sneak into the country but, instead, are crossing the border and immediately surrendering to Border Patrol. They are doing this because they are asking for asylum in our country from sure death in theirs. So many refugees are fleeing for their lives that Mexican authorities are holding them at the border and giving them a number so that they can be delivered to the U.S. Border Patrol when overtaxed facilities become available to accommodate them.

ICE has decided that draconian measures are necessary to slow the flow of refugees, so when families with children surrender at the border, the parents are separated from the children and each are held in different facilities, sometimes in different states. This abhorrent behavior by ICE is designed to discourage asylum seekers from coming to America. Instead, it has become a Sophie’s Choice between losing one’s children or returning to one’s country to be killed.

I’m already tired of all of this winning.

Jed

this alone gives the lie to any claims for america as a christian nation. our society is collectively behaving despicably.

perks

We cant house every refugee in the world. This is a nation of laws, crossing a country’s border illegally is a crime. Thats why we have borders and laws.

SpiritofPearl

If we had rational immigration policies, some of these matters would be mitigated.

Yea, and that’s the only reason because Dems are playing the long game since immigrants cannot vote until they become citizens.
/s

SpiritofPearl

Illegals don’t vote in U.S. elections. You’ve been deceived.

perks

right which is why they want them made legal. duh

BCinBCS

The only illegals who are being considered for citizenship have been in this country for double-digit years – and during that time, they couldn’t vote. duh

SpiritofPearl

And how do you believe that works? What’s the process?

SpiritofPearl

No answer . . .

BCinBCS

“We cant house every refugee in the world”

No one is advocating open borders. What is needed is a sensible immigration policy that does not use immigrants as a fear factor. The Germans had the Jews as their source of all that was wrong with Germany, Myanmar (Burma) has the Rohingya and, now that African-Americans and others won’t tolerate it any longer, the United States has immigrants.

Working with the rest of the world, and especially with those in this hemisphere, to provide foreign aid and to stop the violence, corruption and poverty in just a few countries would go a long way to solve our immigration problem. But, then, that also would be the Christian thing to do.

perks

We do support other countries to the tune of billions, but we cant govern the world and the corruption in every country, that is a whole nother problem. If we dont put the US first and take care of our own problems, we wont be around to help at all.

BCinBCS

The U.S. spends only 1% of its budget on foreign aid and the majority of that goes to only a couple of countries (Israel, Egypt, and Iraq) as military aid.

perks

wrong over 100 countries supported in millions, in various ways. Those countries you mentioned get the biggest % of military financing.

SpiritofPearl

The issue here is that most of our so-called “foreign aid” is welfare for the defense industry, not for life-saving interventions.

BCinBCS

BC: “What is needed is a sensible immigration policy that does not use immigrants as a fear factor.”

As has been written before, “Given a choice between analyzing a problem, identifying a solution, and working to implement it Republicans have used the historically tried and proven approach of finding someone to blame”.

WUSRPH

An excerpt from the new book on Trump. If ANY of this is true….the country is in more danger than it is possible to image.

“Not only would Trump not be president, almost everyone in the
campaign agreed, he should probably not be. Conveniently, the former
conviction meant nobody had to deal with the latter issue.
[…]
Michael Flynn, the retired general who served as Trump’s opening act at campaign
rallies, had been told by his friends that it had not been a good idea
to take $45,000 from the Russians for a speech. “Well, it would only be a
problem if we won,” ­Flynn assured them.
[…]
Once he lost, Trump would be both insanely famous and a martyr to
Crooked Hillary. His daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared would be
international celebrities. Steve Bannon would become the de facto head
of the tea-party movement. Kellyanne Conway would be a cable-news star.
Melania Trump, who had been assured by her husband that he wouldn’t
become president, could return to inconspicuously lunching. Losing would
work out for everybody. Losing was winning.
[…]
Suddenly, Donald Trump became a man who believed that he deserved to be,
and was wholly capable of being, the president of the United States.”

That just about says it all.

The article is an interesting read, you should give it a look.

SpiritofPearl

I read it yesterday. I’m guessing there’s a fair bit of creativity by the writer with respect to conversations. For instance, Roger Ailes is dead. How do we know what he said? I regard unnamed sources with suspicion. We’ll have to wait to see if these claims are substantiated.

But you’re right. We’re in grave danger and have been since Nov. 8, 2016.

donuthin2

As I have said before, it will have to get worse before it gets better. Maybe, just maybe, we are reaching that low point. If it gets bad enough for the R’s to lose control of the house, then we will at least see a moderation in the craziness. And even the remaining R’s will begin to not be so cowardly and do what is right for the country.

SpiritofPearl

This Bannon book remains to be substantiated by other sources. GOP will come around once it hits them in the ballot box. Craven opportunists . . .

WUSRPH

I am not so worried about what the McConnell’s and the mythical “moderate Republicans” will do…but what the true believers will do when Trump proves to be a failure and/or a total fraud who promised them things he never intended or could do……Their hate and anger may only be increased…..and their actions more violent…..

José

Bannon’s philosophy seemed to be that it was necessary to burn down the Republican Party. I might agree at this point. It has been criminally derelict in refusing to stand up to the new regime but instead has taken the opportunity to loot the store while undermining its stated principles. I don’t see how it can possibly redeem itself at this point. Oh, there will be something called the Republican Party in the future, but it can’t have any connection to the McConnell obstructionists or the Tea Party traitors.

St. Anger

They are all traitors.

Aiding and abetting treason is still treason.

BCinBCS

“Loot the store”, a perfect descriptor.

St. Anger

What makes you think they will ever lose?

Look up. The voters who got us here haven’t gotten any smarter or less hateful than they were a year ago.

SeeItMyWay

Thank you for being a voice of reason while surrounded by those swallowing the stinkbait whole. Wolff has written a couple of books and had many dispute his “recollections” with several stating they were outright lies. I believe Klein’s book on Hillary had the Repub’s slobbering and looking for a rope when it hit the shelves, too. Wolff says he has tapes. Suggest he produce them as soon as possible. How ugly can it get? Much more, I’m thinking.

BCinBCS

Besides the books by Edward Klein there was the Mercer financed fiction penned by Peter Schweizer. I suppose truthfulness is dependent upon the reputation, sources and willingness to do the research by the authors.

Because of the craziness of the this administration, I expected sales of this book to be brisk. Now that Comrade Trump is trying to block its publication in the courts, I expect sales to sky-rocket. (Maybe the president is doing it because he’s getting a piece of the sales?)

Fantastic! Do it, these left wing/socialists who allow illegal aliens to thrive and invade our country need to be in jail.

SpiritofPearl

You might check first with the GOP corporate titans who employ most of the illegals. Pilgrims Pride right here in Texas had a scam operation in the HR department that taught illegals how to circumvent the law.

About 80-90% of new construction in Texas is done by illegals. How much more for a new home are Texans willing to pay to eliminate illegals from home building?

I agree that current problem is a result of the desire decades ago to garner cheap labor for construction, meat & poultry packing, and farm & ranching. Past goverance, law enforcement and employers were all “party to the crime” and considerations should be given for this fact when determining how to treat them now.

I am still a proponent of securing the border, deporting those undocumented with criminal records, and changing the guidelines for who we allow in.

SpiritofPearl

Please define “securing the borders” and how you believe that will be implemented.

How do you propose that we “change the guidelines”?

SeeItMyWay

Not sure I know the best way…partial wall, partial fence, drones? Sound and shockwave devices? Motion sensors? Military outposts w/ rapid response helicopters? Lots of options. We spend $150B per year for over 800 based and outposts on foreign soil. I’m shutting many of those down to pay for ones here at home.

As far as immigration guideline changes…merit based. We do not need anymore uneducated and untrained workers.

Jed

“We do not need anymore uneducated and untrained workers.”

what makes you say this? these are precisely the jobs that are now not getting done …

i’m not aware of a job surplus in the “educated and trained” sectors … are you? or are you just saying this because it sounds right? do you actually even support what you are suggesting? more engineers and scientists from other countries moving here?

SeeItMyWay

Why are so many employees at out hospitals from foreign countries? Doctors, too?

Mike Rowe says that we, and especially you self proclaimed intellectuals, put way too much emphasis on the line between a college degree and a trade education. He says the Europeans, and Germans in particular, do not demean trade schools as 2nd tier. The unemployment rate is lower, and the avg income higher than ours. Plumbers, welders, machinists, electricians, computer techs and HVAC repair personnel are not viewed as inferior.

There are all sorts of articles about lack of skilled people to fill job positions if you just Google it. Here’s one:

can’t read the link. but if i follow you, you are saying you are OK with allowing skilled immigration to support unfilled needs for labor?

like roof framers and au pairs? or are there only certain types of jobs that are worthy of work permits/citizenship? are you sure i’m the one being elitist here?

SpiritofPearl

But skilled tradesmen in Germany don’t get those jobs right out of secondary school. They are trained, then serve apprenticeships, and they are supported by UNIONS. They also live in a country that has an excellent support system for healthcare and retirement, not the state of barbarism we live in here.

SpiritofPearl

Do you know if any of these items on your wish list have any likelihood of success? Are you aware that the largest number of illegals who are here arrive legally?

Donald Baker

If I had my way we would deploy land mines on our borders. Mines don’t care how much liberals wring their hands or wet their pants in their zeal to enable the illegal invasion of our country, when stepped on by an invader they just explode and solve the problem.

BCinBCS

I certainly hope that you are joking because otherwise, you are a very sick individual.

SpiritofPearl

He is a sicky.

Tejasguitarman

You took the words right out of my mouth! All of this administration,all the fat cats & most of the Republican Senate & Congress should be imprisoned. Lock ’em up for crimes against humanity!!

Donald Baker

The democrats favor illegal immigration because they see that as a source of illegal voters.

BCinBCS

Donald, you are possibly a very sick individual but with no doubt ill informed.

SpiritofPearl

I thought I blocked you.

vincentlawrence

SANCTUARY cities are as illegal as the illegal aliens they are protecting.
LOCK THEM ALL UP

José

Which law in particular do you think prohibits a city from declaring itself as a sanctuary? Or does law even matter?

SharingIsCool

US Constitution 10th Amendment

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”

The 10th Amendment is the final amendment in the United States Constitution’s original Bill of Rights. It was
added to assure delegates from the various states that the Federal Government would not step outside the boundaries established in the Constitution.

Plus, he can’t even use proper grammar. “We got to do this, we got to do that…”

I guess that this immigration topic gives the lie to the opinion that all of the liberals posting here have run off the conservatives.

St. Anger

They never miss an opportunity to proclaim their racism from the rooftops.

Gary Purdy

I wonder just how much Obama and Hillary pay Bannon? We have just found out they are paying 6 of the top Republicans. This could go deep with Hillary destroying more evidence Wednesday. These Sanctuary City`s are aiding and abetting Federal criminals. That`s like telling the FBI they can not enter your city limits to investigate and arrest a terrorist.They are named Sanctuary`s for a reason you Liberal idiots. That is not legal.

BCinBCS

“That`s like telling the FBI they can not enter your city limits to investigate and arrest a terrorist.”

No, that’s like the mayor of a city coming to your house to arrest you claiming to be an FBI agent.

WUSRPH

Sorry to have to inform you that just being here witbout legal papers is not a federal crime. It is only a civil violation. It might help if you knew
some law.

SeeItMyWay

A foreign national who enters the U.S. illegally can be both convicted of a crime and held responsible for a civil violation under the U.S. immigration laws. Illegal entry also carries consequences for anyone
who might later attempt to apply for a green card or other immigration benefit.

The penalties and consequences get progressively more severe if a person enters illegally more than once, or enters illegally after an order of removal (deportation) or having been convicted of an aggravated felony.

(See Title 8, Section 1325 of the U.S. Code (U.S.C.), or Section 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (I.N.A.) for the exact statutory language

For the first improper entry offense, the person can be fined (as a criminal penalty), or imprisoned for up to six months, or both. For a subsequent offense, the person can be fined or imprisoned for up to two years, or both. (See 8 U.S.C. Section 1325, I.N.A. Section 275.)

karl1948

Not to mention that if the illegal alien hides, lies to get a job, or virtually any action beyond breathing , they can be charged with being a spy for their country of orgin.

WUSRPH

I thought I had seen some weird posts but suggesting that some could be charge with spying for being here without papers is about the strangest.

The feds aren’t asking the states to enforce anything. All they’re asking is that when they find ’em,hold ’em and contact ICE. It’s called interagency cooperation. Been going on forever.That is,until libtards realized what a gold mine of votes they had on their hands.

steve robertson

Sheriff Joe Arpaio was found guilty in federal court of trying to enforce immigration laws. Now the govt wants to find officials guilty of not enforcing those same laws? States “legalize” recreational marijuana which, under federal law is illegal. Obama’s justice dept won’t prosecute
but Trump’s justice dept will. WTF? I’m not arguing about the wisdom of either set of “laws, but it is hard to build “respect for the law” if you cannot discern what the law is.

SpiritofPearl

He was found guilty of abuse, not “enforcement.”

steve robertson

Wasn’t he found guilty of “criminal contempt” for his refusal to back off of his enforcement actions? Weren’t the charges against him brought by DOJ?

Do you believe what Mr. Allen writes? Why? Why is what this guy projects gobbled up by you as the truth? He talks about behind the scenes comments, stories, jokes, etc. Trump has a massive ego and a need to always get in the last word…but to call him stupid or uninvolved, is a tough one for me to swallow. No one would call him “Presidential”, but that is OK with me. All Presidents, save two, in my lifetime (Truman & Eisenhower) have been political animals. I did not want to see another one like the four presvious ones. I got my wish and will continue to monitor what transpires. Thus far, I’m pleased.

SpiritofPearl

The point of the article was to raise doubts about the Woolf book. I myself loathe Trump and all his works, but am reserving judgment about the veracity of the book.

WUSRPH

Trump says he never spoke to Wolff….His press mouthpiece says he did….Wolff says he talked to Trump for three hours and to many WH aides who freely told him about Trump’s problems, etc. He probably has notes and maybe tapes. But, of course, none of this is going to make any difference to the True Believers or some of our posters…..They have to believe that Trump is the best president we have ever had…..and would probably say so even if he started babbling in public (drugged by Obama, of course). Rick Perry and company don’t have the guts to sign a finding under the 25th Amendment so we will just have to hope they can keep Trump under control for three more years.

karl1948

Any government official whose oath includes the phase “uphold the laws of the United States” or a similar phase is required to enforce federal laws regardless of their personal beliefs. Failure to do so is malfeasance and grounds for removal and possible criminal charges.

St. Anger

That is actually completely incorrect. Fully 180 degrees wrong. No basis in fact at all. Yet you say it with such certainty. Why?

dave in texas

Right-wing news outlets speak with absolute certainty all the time, and it’s always eagerly lapped up by folks who like having their biases confirmed. When lies and BS are all you have, it’s always best to state said lies and BS with conviction, lest people actually do their own research and come to a different conclusion.

SpiritofPearl

It’s genetic – fear of the “other” and religious beliefs that promote authoritarianism to quell the fear.

BCinBCS

“It’s genetic…”

The amygdala is a brain structure that is responsible for survival instincts and emotional processing. One of the big emotions that it handles is fear. Research has shown that the amygdalas of conservatives are bigger than those of liberals. This may explain why conservatives tend to be more concerned about things that threaten them and liberals are not. Any change from the ordinary or the expected can trigger the fear response in varying degrees resulting in the responses typical of conservatives. It should be realized, however, that the amygdala is not the sole determinant of these actions.

JJ, before you start a comment on another’s post with “Hahaha…” you should be damned sure that you know what you are talking about, otherwise, the joke is on you. The article that you cite does not debunk what I wrote. Either you did not read beyond the article’s title or, if you did, you did not understand what you read.

The gist of your cited article is, in the author’s own words: “[T]he amygdala is an important part of the circuit that allows the brain to
detect and respond to threats but is not necessary to feel “fear.” […] While amygdala circuits are directly responsible for
behavioral/physiological responses elicited by threats, they are not
directly responsible for feelings of “fear”.” The author is distinguishing between the feeling of fear, the racing heart, increased blood flow to the peripheral muscles, etc. that is not produced by the amygdala and the processing of that the fear which is done by the amygdala.

He goes on to support what I stated in my comment: “From the beginning, my research suggested that the amygdala contributes
to non-conscious aspects of fear, by which I meant the detection of
threats and the control of body responses that help cope with the
threat. […] While amygdala circuits are directly responsible for
behavioral/physiological responses elicited by threats, they are not
directly responsible for feelings of ‘fear.'”

Since you started this “Repub’s are scared” business a year or so ago, I pointed out that it much of what we fear is a learned response; you have bordered on suggesting that if we have a larger amaygala we, at birth, are going to be afraid of wolves or guns or _____. Not so. A large amaygala might cause one to pay more attention to loud noises and other types surrounding stimuli than a person with a smaller one. PAY MORE ATTENTION, not bolt and run or charge and fight.

Here are a few more interesting takes from one of the studies you cited:

– Conservatives have stronger motivations than liberals to preserve purity and cleanliness

– Republicans are more likely than Democrats to interpret faces as threatening and expressing dominant emotions, while Democrats show greater emotional distress and lower life satisfaction

– Conservatives have more activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the part of the brain that activates for complex social evaluations

– Conservatism is focused on preventing negative outcomes, while liberalism is focused on advancing positive outcomes.

– Conservatives learn better from negative stimuli than from positive stimuli and are more risk avoidant than liberals

– Liberals are more open-minded and creative whereas conservatives are more orderly and better organized

BCinBCS

JJ, I see from where you are coming. I suppose that I did not make myself clear enough. I never said that conservatives are more afraid or that a larger amygdala made them more fearful. What I sad was that fear is processed differently in conservatives than in liberals.

Although those findings are generalizations, a specific example may clarify the matter. I, along with many people have a fear of falling. Many people express this as a fear of heights but most, like me, have no problem driving to the top of a mountain for the view, flying in airplanes or going to the roof of a skyscraper. Most do, and I especially do, refuse to go to the edge of a cliff of a mountain, fly in open cockpit planes or go to the edge of the roof of a skyscraper. There are others, however, who consider it the height of fun to jump off of mountains, out of airplanes or off of tall buildings. This is because they process fear differently. Psychologists say that many risk-takers have lower levels of neurotransmitters (the chemicals that cause nerve impulses to travel from one nerve cell to the next) causing them to do dangerous things in order to stimulate greater neurotransmitter release.

Conservatives process the same fear that liberals experience in a different manner just as risk-takers process fear in a different manner than do non-risk-takers. Studies have shown that the amygdala seems to be involved. If that is because a larger amygdala causes a desire for less change or because the desire for less change results in a larger amygdala, as far as I can find, no one is certain. It’s important to remember that this is a two-way street; fear of change has a large effect on beliefs and beliefs have a large effect on one’s fears.

No one is claiming superiority because of this. I’m sure that conservatives feel that their beliefs are superior to those of liberals just as liberals do with conservatives. Knowing about the amygdala is simply a tool for understanding one of the many reasons that liberals and conservatives believe as they do.

SeeItMyWay

Gotcha. Thanks for the other links. Good stuff.

SeeItMyWay

Since you started this “Repub’s are scared” business a year or so ago, I pointed out that much of what we fear is a learned response; you have bordered on suggesting that if we have a larger amaygala we, at birth, are going to be afraid of wolves or guns or _____. Not so. A large amaygala might cause one to pay more attention to loud noises and other types surrounding stimuli than a person with a smaller one…to PAY MORE ATTENTION, not bolt and run or charge and fight.

Here are a few more interesting takes from one of the studies you cited:

– Conservatives have stronger motivations than liberals to preserve purity and cleanliness

– Republicans are more likely than Democrats to interpret faces as threatening and expressing dominant emotions, while Democrats show greater emotional distress and lower life satisfaction

– Conservatives have more activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the part of the brain that activates for complex social evaluations

– Conservatism is focused on preventing negative outcomes, while liberalism is focused on advancing positive outcomes.

– Conservatives learn better from negative stimuli than from positive stimuli and are more risk avoidant than liberals

– Liberals are more open-minded and creative whereas conservatives are more orderly and better organized.

SpiritofPearl

You and your family have benefited in many ways from the “research” you so naively denigrate.

SpiritofPearl

As someone trained in genetics, I agree. The problem is that we may be observing two different genetic populations developing in the U.S. If so, how did it happen? And how can we restore “E pluribus unum” to our national psyche?

BCinBCS

Just as there has always been blue eyed and brown eyed people, there will be those who have more fear and those who have less. Although it is possible to temporarily make a conservative more liberal and a liberal more conservative, the solution seems to be one of education. People are less afraid of the things that they understand.

SpiritofPearl

I agree about education.

Were the genes always there in the population? If so why are they now more observable? Did the civil rights movement terrify the “genes for fear” crowd?

BCinBCS

Pearl: “Were the genes always there in the population? If so why are they now more observable? Did the civil rights movement terrify the “genes for fear” crowd?”

I don’t know but it would be an interesting field of study.

SpiritofPearl

Did you study genetics? If so do you remember the classic case of the Manchester moths? If not I won’t bother you about it.

BCinBCS

I have a degree in microbiology so I took a lot of biology, biochemistry, chemistry and genetics. It was so long ago that most of the genetics that I was taught was Mendelian crosses and how cells replicated using mitosis. Since so little was known at the time, very little DNA based genetics was taught.

I learned about Mendel’s peas, Darwin’s finches and the Manchester moths.

If I were to get another degree, it would definitely be in genetics. As a matter of fact, for curiosities sake, I have audited genetics classes at the local university.

SpiritofPearl

You are a glutton for punishment . . .

I worked for a couple of population geneticists early in my career. The idea that populations are NOT static genetically, that they shift over time, is very interesting to me.

BCinBCS

When I started, I had no idea that the microbiology curriculum was so comprehensive.

SpiritofPearl

I took those same courses plus environmental biology, anatomy, physiology, cell biology. My first degree was in Biological Sciences rather than micro, zoo, botany, or ecology. When I took the GRE, I discovered I knew little about plants. “Up the xylem, down the phloem,” as my hs. biology teacher told us. was about all I remembered.

SeeItMyWay

Does this not work both ways?

dave in texas

Only if you think there are only left-wing and right-wing outlets (with nothing in-between) that are in competition with one another. Despite the popular myth, the so-called mainstream media is not some kind of liberal monolith. The overwhelming majority of them work exceptionally hard to report the news fairly. Fox News was the first major outlet to expressly pick a side. I trust the NY Times and the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal and places like that to fairly report the facts.
Does the Times’ editorial page lean left? Yes it does, just like the WSJ’s leans right. I think it’s vitally important to be able to separate an outlet’s news coverage from its editorial stance. A lot of people don’t seem to be able, or willing, to do that. The people who dismiss out of hand every word that’s printed in the New York Times do themselves a serious disservice.

SeeItMyWay

I read major editorials and columns from both the NYT’s and the WaPo, and pieces from other major newspapers. I watch bits and pieces of FOX, MSNBC and One America, as well as NBC and ABC 5:30pm newscasts.

I find that on FOX discussions there is generally always a dissenting viewpoint. FOX even employees some Dem’s to counterbalance the discussions.

I find very little of this on the other channels. Ever watched Morning Joe?

I also wonder why so little time is allotted to news in/on the left leaning outlets that could be considered favorable to the right. It is very obvious. Never noticed it?

dave in texas

In all honesty, I watch precious little broadcast news. It’s not that I find it biased as much as I just find it to be uniformly awful. It’s nothing but horse race coverage and policy analysis that focuses only on how it will play politically instead of how it would actually affect people. All sizzle and no steak. I read the NYT and WaPo, Slate, National Review Online, Talking Points Memo, the Atlantic. I can’t afford the WSJ, so I don’t read it all that much.

I’ll also say that “favorable to the right” is entirely subjective and that the amount of space or time available to news outlets is limited. How many stories on Fox have you heard that mention that tens of millions of people who didn’t have insurance coverage prior to Obamacare now have it, many of them for the first time in years?

I’d ask you this: Is there anyone on the left with the prestige of David Frum (the Atlantic), Ross Douthat (NYT), Charles Krauthammer and George Will (WaPo) that regularly appears at NRO or the WSJ or any other right-leaning editorial page? The answer to that is no, I’d say.

SeeItMyWay

Those you name do represent “prestige”, I would say. They show up in lots of places, and the fact they are in demand is directly proportional to popularity. There truly are no super stars I can think of when it comes to liberal leaning journalists, but there are more of them, I would say.

José

You can add David Brooks (NYTimes) and Jennifer Rubin (WaPo). Kathleen Parker (WaPo) also identifies as a conservative.

dave in texas

I’ve come to be a pretty big Jennifer Rubin fan. She uses largely conservative arguments to just pillory the president. Still don’t like her neocon tendencies, but she’s taking some pretty brave stands for someone on the right. I’ll bet her e-mail inbox is horrific.

SeeItMyWay

“Establishment” Repub’s still hate Trump, even though most have been shamed into keeping their mouths shut about it for “the sake of the party”. Even here in the state direct criticism and off-hand slights have waned. Sen Konni Burton, a still smarting Cruz lover, has stopped her retweeting every Trump slam that was posted on Twitter. She was getting pilloried for it. All the Dem voters and columnists hate Trump; a handful of Cruz lovers and D.C. power brokers do too. I wouldn’t expect it to be any other way. Both groups suffered crushing, unexpected loses. Those are the hardest to overcome.

SpiritofPearl

Still pushing the “liberals are upset because they lost” meme? Right out of alt-right Fantasy Land . . .

SeeItMyWay

Oh, so they don’t care that they lost? You don’t care? All was forgotten the day after the election and there was a honeymoon period where all you liberals took a wait and see attitude? No, that didn’t happen. From day one you were all wailing to high heaven and licking your wounds. They are still unhealed; never really going to be.

SpiritofPearl

Off topic again.

Of course, Dems are horrified that a mentally ill fascist authoriitarian is in the WH. Why aren’t you?

SeeItMyWay

I’m off topic? Just responding to the “I hate Trump” posts on a thread about immigration.

If you are horrified, why is it that you are constantly calling Repub’s fearful? Trump is different; I wanted different. If Hillary was Prez I would be afraid. After a year of her being in office where do you think we would be? Right where we were 18 mos ago. ISIS growing and everything else at an impasse.

Where’s the personal attack here? Is this just something you are going to spit out now on a regular basis. You, of all people, should know what “ad hominem” means.

Finally, let me get this straight…this is your scientific position…”Trump is different; Hitler was different; Trump is going to become like Hitler.”?
Who is it that is afraid?

As the “scientific study” BCinBCS posted states, “ Conservatives have more activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortices, the part of the brain that activates for complex social evaluation”, and “Democrats show more emotional distress and lower life satisfaction”.

SpiritofPearl

One problem with TV/radio news is that THEY decide what I should know . . .

WUSRPH

In fact, the US Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the federal government MAY NOT REQUIRE state or local officials to enforce federal laws…..

St. Anger

And yet here you are reading and replying to me. My comment wasn’t even addressed to you.

Heck, it wasn’t even ABOUT you. But I guess the truth hurts?

SeeItMyWay

Blah Blah Blah.

WUSRPH

Have you noticed we haven’t heard much lately about how Gov. Abbott and Texas’ own Superman, John Sharp, are restoring all the damage from Hurricane Harvey…..I suspect there are a couple of reasons—-first the less than friendly reaction Abbott got from the Texas congressional delegation (including the GOP majority) when he accused them of having no back bones and, second, the fact that many thousands of people are stuck waiting for aid months after the storm and Abbott’s definitely does not want to remind them of his role in the mess.

I expect Abbott will shortly begin attacking the feds for not coming up with enough money…..but that tactic loses some of its effectiveness when he continues to refuse to spend any Texas dollars…..He will probably start making the rounds again when there are some more federal checks to hand out……but until he’d rather not remind the victims of what little he has actually done.

Naw, he’s not a terrorist. He’s a lone wolf. A victim of mental illness. A quiet fellow who’s just confused and misunderstood. Was probably abused by mean folks. Maybe he’s understandably upset at the government and all that. Anyhow I’m sure that we can take care of this with thoughts and prayers. And more guns and tax cuts, of course.

mrtexas1

“Thomas Homan, went on Fox News and threatened to jail and prosecute elected officials in so-called sanctuary cities who do not fully cooperate with federal authorities in rounding up and deporting undocumented immigrants.” Is this for real? Threatening our local leadership? I would think they all follow laws and Federal directives. Why he (T.H.) have to go on National TV, putting on a show related to enforcing federal laws in America? Our CBP have been doing this type of work for years. They have always gotten assistance from other local law enforcement agencies, to capture those violating the law. No comprendo, amigos??? Ole T. H. Don’t have to “threaten”. Anyone violating laws will be picked up, sent to jail and if appropriate, get sent back to their old home country. Help! First Trump now Tommy Hearn! The threat is on Hearn for messing up on the job! Pobrecito Tommy.

“very stable genius”….Nice to see Trump is so confident of his abilities….His humility is also striking.

SeeItMyWay

Someone read the segment of my post below to old WUSRPH which outlines the study about Democrat’s emotional stress and lower life satisfaction. Maybe it is not too late for him to seek help.

SpiritofPearl

Conservatives use religion to palliate their fears.

SeeItMyWay

I would say it is just the opposite.

St. Anger

That’s what religion IS.

SpiritofPearl

Yup.

SeeItMyWay

Yeah, faith is an intangible. You intellects have no comprehension of faith. Some of you come around, but most don’t. Some, like you, get abused by church leaders and then try and paint all who are “religious” as weak, fearful, hypocritical quacks. I, personally, don’t care what you think. Can we co-exist?

SpiritofPearl

Not all who wander are lost.

SpiritofPearl

I have been abused by any church leader or any other member of the clergy of the Catholic Church which I left peacefully in 1965. Why do you continue to make this false statement? Do you fantasize about priests molesting little girls? What’s your goal?

SeeItMyWay

I truly thought you made reference to some abuse that drove you away. Truly sorry for suggesting on several occasions that this was the case.

SpiritofPearl

Thank you. My whole class got smacked with a ruler once when we were in eighth grade. That’s it.

SeeItMyWay

They used paddles on us.

SpiritofPearl

My son learned when he started teaching special ed in Texas that duct tape had only recently been outlawed in Texas. Sandbags were still allowed.

SeeItMyWay

I am passing this on. My daughter-in-law seems to get all the borderline special needs kids assigned to her 2nd grade class…because she loves them and the parents and admin knows she is so good with them. This will made her laugh.

SpiritofPearl

Texas got cited by the Dept. of Ed. for shunting too many kids into Sp. Ed. in order to keep their tests scores out of the pool, but that’s another story. The state reduced the number of Sp. Ed. classrooms to “mainstream” them into regular ed classrooms.

SeeItMyWay

They are doing that all over the place, not just Texas. It is immoral, bordering on criminal. If they want to save money, the Medicaid benefits being paid to liars and slackers needs to be curtailed. I personally know several who have paid an attorney to help them garner a monthly check when they are well enough to work.

SpiritofPearl

There you go again. They weren’t trying to save money. They were trying to reduce the population in special ed classes by mainstreaming them into regular classes. Let’s not kill granny . . .

BCinBCS

It has taken me awhile to respond to your comment because I wanted to do some research on the matter. You wrote: “I personally know several who have paid an attorney to help them garner a monthly [Medicaid benefits] check when they are well enough to work“.

Nowhere have I been able to find a provision in Medicaid that pays a person a stipend when they are sick. The only payment that I have confirmed is to relatives who act as home health care workers.

Would you please provide proof of your statement or t cite the program feature that allows the payments that you claim?

SeeItMyWay

Two examples. One college buddy who had a stroke. Healed up fairly well and could obviously work in an office environment. A degree in accounting. After being rejected for Medicaid, he hired an attorney who “specialized” in getting qualified. Never worked again. The second was a high school acquaintance who had a heart attack. Same deal. They could both have done something; chose to sit at home and collect a check.

BCinBCS

O.K. so they had medical insurance through Medicaid. Nonetheless, they did not receive monthly checks because of their disabilities as you claimed.

SeeItMyWay

What?

BCinBCS

You wrote: “I personally know several who have paid an attorney to help them garner a monthly check when they are well enough to work.”

I replied: “Nowhere have I been able to find a provision in Medicaid that pays a person a stipend when they are sick. The only payment that I have confirmed is to relatives who act as home health care workers.”

You gave two examples of people who got on Medicaid despite your opinion that they could work.

I explained that they, therefore, now had medical insurance but were not getting a monthly (disability?) check as you originally stated.

I don’t understand your confusion and I still have heard of no evidence that anyone gets money each month for being on Medicaid.

SeeItMyWay

Guess you need to study up.

BCinBCS

O.K., we’re on the same page. I have absolutely no problem with people being on Medicaid. As a matter of fact, I attribute it to pure hatred of the poor, politics at its most cynical and racism that the Republicans in charge of this state did not expand Medicaid during the Obama administration or, for that matter, now.

I agree that some people abuse the Social Security Disability system. The requirements to receive benefits should be strict and there should be reviews of that eligibility about every five years except for the most obvious of cases.

BCinBCS

Sandbags? Are you making a joke?
How do they discipline with sandbags?

SpiritofPearl

No. When my son was subbing in 1999 before he became a licensed teacher, he subbed as an assistant in a special ed class for a couple of weeks. The lead teacher told him that duct taping the mouths of unruly children had been recently outlawed (1999), but that weighting children down with heavy sandbags was still permitted.

The sandbags were used with younger children to keep them quiet – or at least in one place – during naptime.

BCinBCS

OMG, that’s child abuse. I would think that soft restraints would be better and safer than sandbags. Incredible.

SpiritofPearl

Don’t know if the law has changed. My son hasn’t been a SE teacher since 2008.

WUSRPH

I assume you meant “have NOT” as it fits with the rest of the post….

SpiritofPearl

Thank you.

BCinBCS

JJ: “You intellects have no comprehension of faith.”

Why would you make such a blatantly false statement as that?

SpiritofPearl

“Come around”? You mean “suspend disbelief”?

WUSRPH

Trump attacks the special prosecutor because he says the investigation hurts the US’s image and makes it look foolish….How much more foolish could it make it look foolish than his tweets?

BCinBCS

Yea, and he can’t release his income tax returns because he is under audit.
SOS

SpiritofPearl

Amen!

donuthin2

I don’t think I’ve seen as much, “anger, wailing, gnashing of the teeth” from anyone as I saw from you over Obama.

SpiritofPearl

Calling Obama “a racist” makes me laugh.

WUSRPH

You have to understand to him anyone who notices or talks about racism is a racist…The only way you cannot be one is to ignore it…even if you at the same time have strange ideas about young black males.

SeeItMyWay

If a Republican Prez sent David Dukes to quell a conflict between Skinheads and bunch of Blacks, how loud would you be screaming? What names would you be calling that Prez?

SpiritofPearl

Who should Obama have sent to quell matters in Ferguson? No matter who he sent you’d say he was racist.

I was born and raised in STL. Mr. P. wrote his Ph.D. disseration on the police in STL. You don’t know jack about what happened there.

SeeItMyWay

And I have a sister-in-law with two sons who are STL attorneys that started out as STL policeman. One, in fact, is now a judge. Ever been on the train from the airport to downtown? Know anything about the stops around GWU? The crime around there? Bro-in-laws good friend was missing and found dead off the expressway a day later. Drive by shooting just south of this area. You don’t know squat about the area. You damn sure refuse to acknowledge what specifically happened to the specific cop in Ferguson that prompted the big thug to be shot and killed. If you can’t at least acknowledge that this shooting was justified, then we have no starting point for further discussion on the subject. Sending Holder would have worked; maybe Biden…sending Sharpton was a calculated, in your face, f**k**u message that Obama wanted to not so subtlety deliver. Totally lost me then. He is the WPE.

SpiritofPearl

GWU? Are you drunk? Are you thinking of DC?

SpiritofPearl

O. didn’t send someone to Ferguson to appease an angry old white Texan. He sent a black clergyman who is respected by the black community in STL.

I’m no fan of Al, but the purpose of his mission for Obama was not to pacify old white bigots. It was to calm unrest in the black population.

Using Wiki now, eh?

SeeItMyWay

It is not that I never posted links, and you know it. It is also a fact that I have posted links from many of those publications considered left leaning. It is also true that I am not a far right wing nut. I think you know that.

SpiritofPearl

You are a white supremacist.

SpiritofPearl

Oh, JJ, don’t make a fool of yourself. I’m a seventh-generation St. Louisan. My Irish ancestors are buried in Calvary Cemetary. My Alsatian ancestors are buried in St. Peter and Paul cemetary.

There is no “GWU” in STL.

If you ARE talking about STL, the area you are describing is my neighborhood. I was born in Barnes Hospital, grew up in the Central West End, went to grade and high school in the neighborhood, then college a few miles away at St. Louis U. I was married in the St. Louis Cathedral, two blocks from my home (which still stands).

You and your relatives are woefully uninformed. It seems to run in your family . . .

SeeItMyWay

Washington U.

So what? You grew up there, left years ago, but are an expert on current situation? My bro-in-law still lives there, my wife was born there…blah, blah, blah. I have probably spent a lot more time there in the last 20 yrs than you have.

SpiritofPearl

I go back every year for a reunion. I grew up in the neighborhhood you seem to think is a pest hole. It’s urban with a large black population. Sorry if that scares old white guys like you.

As I said, my husband wrote his doctoral dissertation on the cops in STL and STL county. He spent years in that city working with multiple jurisdictions in the area. He rode in cop cars on runs. He worked with many police chiefs and departments. My uncle and cousins were cops and firemen. I’ll bet your relatives are all suburbanites living in little white sheltered enclaves.

You know nothing.

SeeItMyWay

Nope. All live in town in relatively small frame houses. All close to nice bars and restaurants…except the cop, turned lawyer, turned Judge. He is in suburbs. Part of family on bro-in-laws wife’s side is mixed race. Very close knit. 20 or so grandchildren. All close by. They aren’t racists. They are realists. They do not attend church, or haven’t in a longtime. What else can I say?

SpiritofPearl

What part of “in town”do they live? The Hill? Dogtown? U City?

SeeItMyWay

Lindenwood Park in the neighborhood….South City is the area

SpiritofPearl

My grandfather was born east of there on Meramac St., “down by where da Cherokee car bends,” as the old Germans used to say. My uncle, a chronic schizophrenic, logged a lot of hours at the state mental hospital on Arsenal St. after my grandparents could no longer afford his treatment at Alexian Bros.

SeeItMyWay

OK…so tell me how my relatives, with a mixed racial family, and members who are or have been policemen, are racist enemies.

SpiritofPearl

What do you mean by “racist enemies”?

SpiritofPearl

You should tell your relatives to read “Narrow at the Bone” by John Heidenrich who went to Cathedral School just like I did. It chronicles the Greenlease murder that started in Kansas City and ended in STL right in your family’s neighborhood and mine. Louis Shoulders was assigned to the Sixth Precinct on Newstead Ave. just a few blocks from my house, right next door to Sala’s Pizzeria and Jimmy and Andy’s bar. Louis Shoulders lived in an apartment at the other end of my street, Pershing Ave. The ransom money was never recovered . . .

SpiritofPearl

What racial mix? Black/white? Asian/white? What?

WUSRPH

I would be a lot more inclined to accept that Trump is a stable genius if he did more to demonstrate that status than just claim it.

WUSRPH

While Trump claims to be a genius, but refuses to put up or show, there are other presidents who have been.

Bannon is said to have had plans for 200 Trump executive orders for the first year or less…..to remake America…..of course, he blew up that idea when the first one on immigration was so mishandled but it would be interesting to see just what he had in mind…….

SpiritofPearl

Well, that’s ancient history, no?

WUSRPH

An impossible scenario for sometime in the next two years:

The talks between North and South Korea accomplish little or nothing…..Trump adds to the pressures on a nation already short of fuel and food,,….resulting in mass starvation…(which has happened before but before they did not have the bomb)….To try to hold onto power Kim announces to South Korea that it must break the blockade and supply the North with food OR he will invade to seize it…..What happens next?

What’s that old slogan about not backing a badly wounded and frightened animal into a corner?

SeeItMyWay

Would someone please ask WUSRPH if he has ever negotiated a business deal of any significance? I’m not talking the cost of a sombrero in a Nuevo Laredo vendor stand or a used car in East Austin. Obama and Hillary didn’t have a clue so I doubt he does either.

St. Anger

Is this you continuing to not obsess about your disapproval of these figures from the past?

SpiritofPearl

Trump is a loser. You voted for him. Not such a great judge of character . . .

SeeItMyWay

After six random, disconnected posts, it is obvious I should no longer be poking insults at WUSRPH.

BCinBCS

JJ: “Get off my grass!”

WUSRPH

Another impossible scenario for the next couple of years:

Trump, apparently only for reasons known only to him, continues to apply all kinds of pressures and/or threats to Pakistan and/or Iran. Pakistan—for money and for spite—sells some of its surplus nuclear weapons to Iran which only does not have them now because of the deal made by President Obama which Trump attacks so much.

WUSRPH

Of course, if either or both were to happen (totally impossible) it would only prove that Trump was right when he claimed to be smarter than all the generals, diplomats and experts when he predicted that North Korea was dangerous and Iran would get the bomb despite the Obama deal.

WUSRPH

I won’t even speculate about how Israel and Saudi Arabia might react……many, many nuclear armed scorpions in a bottle?

WUSRPH

Does anyone think that Trump is so small of a person that he would—as rumored—threaten the British that the US will not enter a post-Brexit deal with them unless he is invited to the royal wedding and/or gets a formal dinner with the queen? Two problems—Prince Harry is apparently very friendly with Pres. Obama and wants him to come….and it is going to be in the Prince George Chapel at Windsor which seats only about 800 if you pack them in. But maybe they could sit Trump next to the queen….Phillip won’t mind.

SpiritofPearl

Trump has disgusting table manners.

BCinBCS

JJ: “I called Obama a racist and unqualified.”

Whaaat?
Please explain how President Obama was a racist and in what areas he was unqualified.

SeeItMyWay

Keep up.

BCinBCS

I find it telling that you consider Obama the worst president ever and that you consider Comrade Trump a good president.

WUSRPH

Of course Obama was unqualified….First of all there was that birth thing…..that skin color…and the fact that he had only been a college professor, an urban organizer and a state and US senator before he ran…..We all know that to be qualified you have to be a “businessman” who cheated his creditors out of hundreds of millions of dollars in bad deals and multiple bankruptcies….That is what it takes to be president….One only hopes that this time he won’t screw things up and think he can simply wash his hands of the mess and walk away as he has done so many times in the past.

SpiritofPearl

Old Harry was a lousy businessman.

WUSRPH

Some failed businessman from Arlington used to make wild charges about the Clinton’s having a “pay for play” policy involving their foundation….I wonder if the thinks this is different?

“Kushner family business got $30M investment from Israeli firm prior to Trump’s state visit: report”

My father had season tickets to the Oilers from their very first game in the old AFL in the old decrepit UoH stadium…..I even followed them for a few years after they moved but it soon became not the same team……Since my wife’s team, the Packers, did not make the playoffs this year I have to find someone to support.

BCinBCS

Support the Titans, if you want, but not because they used to be the Oilers. The only thing that the Titans have in common with the Oilers is Bud Adams and he’s dead.

BCinBCS

I forgot. For you non-football or non-Houston sports fans:
Bud Adams was the owner of the Houston Oilers who moved the team to Tennessee and re-named it the Titans.

donuthin2

Adams had a lot in common with Jerry as neither could stand success. I especially enjoyed when Phillips was coach.

BCinBCS

Yea, Bum was the absolute best. Love Ya Blue!

BCinBCS

Again, I forgot. For you non-football or non-Houston sports fans:
Bum Phillips was the Houston Oilers head coach from 1975 to 1980. In 1978 and 1979 he took the Oilers to the AFC championship, with the help of Earl Campbell, losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers both times.

Love Ya Blue was a fan initiated movement that took hold after Earl Campbell, seeing all of the fans with their baby blue and white pom-poms (the team colors) given out by the team, said the display of love ya blue brought the city of all races together.

SpiritofPearl

(Sigh) Football is a slow and boring game . . .

BCinBCS

Then you must really hate my favorite sport – baseball.

SpiritofPearl

Hey! I’m a girl from a two-team town – the Browns and the Cardinals. It IS slow, but players don’t often end up with CTE.

WUSRPH

I have always been a little queasy about the name The Titans perhaps because I attended the game in the UofH stadium when the new Oilers played the then New York Titans of the AFL, who folded up after two years and were replaced by the Jets. The game sticks in my memory because one of the NY players was killed in the game as a result of a head injury.

First you need to understand how dems think….to a dem it ain’t stealing its an entitlement

WUSRPH

I have written in the past about why just the geography and climate of Korea makes it one of the worst places in the world to fight a war. All that remains true, as I hope Trump’s aides have tried to explain to him (assuming they could get his attention away from cable news and his tweeter)…..This article discuss some of that and the possible casualties.

(Maybe his staff should make a deal with Fox News that once per day they run an item that his aides feel that it vital that Trump see. That might educate him just a little.)

I think that several learned persons wrote about the facets of the Korean War long before you did. Terrain and the horrible weather was always mentioned and even portrayed in several memorable movies, like Bridge at Toko-Ri.

SpiritofPearl

That’s about Trump’s speed for learning history. Reading a book is HARD.

WUSRPH

Trump is supposed to give a speech in Nashville in which it is thought he will make some announcements about the status of the NAFTA agreement…..Since he has also been recently claiming that, no matter what anyone says, Mexico is going to pay his GREAT WALL….what do you think are the odds that he will announce that he will cancel NAFTA unless Mexico comes up with the $18 billion it is now estimated to cost?

Of course, abandoning NAFTA would do billions of dollars of damage to the US economy, particularly to Texas and to the nation’s food corn growers who dominate the Mexican market because NAFTA destroyed the Mexican growers and to the American auto makers who depend on parts made in Mexico to allow them to continue to be competitively priced against foreign makes….But why should any of that bother Trump? After all, he has to find someone to make at least one of his campaign promises true.

SpiritofPearl

A successful businesswoman and philanthropist, but no more amateurs, please

BCinBCS

Oh wow, do I ever agree with you Pearl.
Once bitten, twice shy.

WUSRPH

She makes a speech and the Trump folks are already attacking Oprah’s possible candidacy for president on the grounds of her inexperience.

So let’s take a look at why she may not be qualified.

First, she’s a TV star…..and we have had only two of those as president—Reagan (who hosted a couple of shows, the GE Theater and Death Valley Days) and the current guy;

Second, she’s a billionaire successful business person who made it all on her own without a single bankruptcy….when to be president you need to have started with a multi-million boost from daddy and have had multiple bankruptcies.

Third, she can give an eloquent speech without a teleprompter and talks in complete sentences without repeating herself;

Fourth, she has never held any sort of public office and has shown no real knowledge of foreign or defense issues;

Fifth, she is apparently not that good at lying; and

Sixth, she has no record of sexual harassment.

So clearly she is not qualified.

donuthin2

I would vote for her in a heart beat over the degenerate we now have. I thought her speech was well thought out, effective and very well delivered; so much different than any we have seen out of the white house in the last year.

However, I wish we could find a candidate, either R or D, more qualified and more respectful than what we now have. Irrespective of the politics, I think we may be about to have a cultural revolution in this country. If we old country boys didn’t see the energy last night and realize that change is coming we have lost it.

SeeItMyWay

What old country boy would look/listen to a bunch of Hollywood’ers applaud one of their own and call it “energy”, as if this bunch represents a cross section of our country. None I know of.

donuthin2

We’ll see. They probably sure don’t represent that 40% of the population of which you are a part. But, I am guessing it includes more and more women, minorities and thinking people.

SeeItMyWay

You are right…we’ll see. We are one year into a four year term. I just watched Alabama score 20 points in the 2nd half and then go on to win in OT.

BCinBCS

JJ: “We are one year into a four year term. I just watched Alabama score 20 points in the 2nd half and then go on to win in OT.”

Alabama football has a long history of winning due to effort and preparedness.
Comrade Trump, not so much.
He will almost assuredly continue like the Cleveland Browns.

BCinBCS

Again, for those not into football:

The Cleveland Browns had a record of three wins and thirteen losses in 2015, one win and fifteen losses in 2016 and zero wins and sixteen losses this year. They’re pretty bad.

SeeItMyWay

Another goofy retort. You must have learned to like the taste of crow.

SpiritofPearl

Why would an educated citizen listen to a state of the union speech by a half wit?

SpiritofPearl

How ‘bout those old white people at Trump rallies?

BCinBCS

I have never considered him for President but I keep hearing and reading about former Vice President Joe Biden. After watching his long interview on The PBS NewsHour last week, it finally dawned on me: This man would make a great president. Unfortunately, I believe that he missed his time.

There are 4 quarters in a football game. Being behind in the 1st quarter means nothing. There are 3 more to play. Trump has three more years to put points on the board.

SpiritofPearl

As I said, football is a slow and boring game. Basketball is it! Fastfastfast! Trump is at halftime and has lost one of his contacts . . .

WUSRPH

Trump and his followers kept telling us how America’s economy was collapsing because of Obama and how his election would change everything…….If so, I wonder why there were actually FEWER jobs created in the first year of the Trump Reich than in Obama’s last year.

Of course, Trump will claim that “we ain’t seen anything yet” and that the tax bill will send employment soaring this year….Personally, I hope it will….but that has yet to be seen…..That would require that business put most of its billions in tax savings into hiring and new plants, etc. rather than doing what it has in the past when it spent most of the money on buying up competitors, stock buy-backs, higher executive salaries and benefits and higher dividends. I wish I could believe things will be different this time, BUT?

Of course, just creating more jobs is not what Trump really promised…..His promise was to “bring back” jobs supposedly lost to overseas and to reinvigorate the economies of the rust belt, etc. where the job loses have been concentrated….Just increasing more high tech jobs in the areas where they are concentrated will do nothing to resolve those problems……However, nothing in the tax bill provides any incentive to invest in the areas which he promised the most. Nor has he been talking about any steps to provide any…..In fact, the only kind of incentive to help those areas his Administration has come up with to date was Rick Perry’s plan to force electric companies to pay an inflated price to power plants fueled by coal and atomic power to boost the coal industry which Trump’s own appointees totally rejected today.

Had Bannon stayed in the White House we might have heard a little more of the populist economic nationalism pap that Trump was spouting during the campaign….which would have included some of those kinds of incentives….but, with him gone, there is no one in the Administration that supports any of that, including Trump.

BCinBCS

JJ, 98% of all voters could have voted for Comrade Trump and he would still be a horrible president. Besides, if you were judging ability by support, Comrade Trump has only a 38% approval rating so according to you, that would indicate that you voted for a loser.

SeeItMyWay

Do I have to explain the four quarters analogy to you again? First of all, I don’t think he is “losing” anything. Secondly, it is early in the ballgame.

BCinBCS

JJ:”…it is early in the ballgame.”

Everyone said that Comrade Trump would pivot to being a normal candidate when he became the Republican presidential nominee. Then everyone said that he would pivot once he became president. Now you are saying that he will pivot away from his craziness in the next three quarters of the ballgame.

Wanna bet?

SeeItMyWay

“Everyone said”? Bullshit. I never heard one person say he was going to change into something he is not. Never. Quotes, please.

SpiritofPearl

Presidents have most results in their first year.

WUSRPH

There are 11 days left before the government shuts down unless the Congress extends it AGAIN. I wonder if Trump will show any leadership THIS TIME. He has not to date…so why should we expect it now?

Other important dates for the new congress, such as the deadline for extending the CHIP program, can be found at:

If your television is going to break down a good day might be January 30 which is when Trump is supposed to give his next fantasy speech—the State of the Union.

Donald Baker

Sure sounds like a good idea to me. With the help of liberal democrats we are losing our country. No other country has the insane lax immigration laws we have.

BCinBCS

Donald: “With the help of liberal democrats we are losing our country.”

Really? To whom are we losing this country? Where is it going?

St. Anger

Donald, don, same dreck.

Could it be that our “lax” immigration laws are a constitutive part of our national character?

Why do you hate America, Donzo?

BCinBCS

Yea Don, why do you hate America?

Donald Baker

Actually I spent 27 years in the military defending this country I love, and am a Vietnam veteran. What I hate is liberal politicians and useful idiots like you that are trying to destroy this country.

St. Anger

Looks to me like you risked your life for 27 years without understanding why.

Sad.

BCinBCS

Again I ask:
To whom are we losing this country? Where is it going? How is it being destroyed?

BCinBCS

JJ: “You guys continually throw up some link to a piece someone has composed and call it absolute fact.”

You rarely support your arguments by citing corroborating evidence. You continually claim superiority to the rest of the world due to your business experience. Almost all of the people who include links when commenting are college educated. That is how we were taught. Unless it is an opinion piece, a response is more correct if it is supported by links or citations.

Even if comments do not have links, it is incumbent upon you to provide accurate rebuttals if you think that they are incorrect.

A lot of what I post here is opinion, not fact. Opinions are often a conglomeration of arguments presented as fact. I form a conclusion based on my personal evaluation of what I hear, read and watch.

Second, After four years of college I need about 15 hours to graduate. Am I uneducated?

Third, several of you “enlightened” people have this air of omnipotence. I have not gained superior knowledge in any field, but I have a lot of practical knowledge from years of experience in varied business endeavors. When I use personal experience as support for my positions, they seem to carry little weight with you “intellectuals.” Obviously, I lie and some source you cite written by some paid association head

SpiritofPearl

Find a cure for cancer. Come back and tell us your opinion.

SpiritofPearl

Nada. Your posts are regurgitation of alt-right media.

SeeItMyWay

Except for all I subscribe to that isn’t like what they push. You know I am somewhat moderate on several fronts, but you can’t make yourself admit it.

SpiritofPearl

You’re not as crazy as Booksie. Tell me some of your “moderate” views.

SeeItMyWay

Moderately conservative. I thought you indicated that you had seen some of my positions posted on Twitter and my retorts to Empower Texans, Konni Burton, et al. I have also stated that I do not want our trade agreements dumped, just renegotiated. I have said that I do not want to see DACA young people deported. I have said that I want Medicare benefits for those who don’t need as much help decreased. There are others.

Against abortion, but believe in right to choose. Don’t believe in late term abortions, selling of tissue or body parts, or taxpayer funding. Attended my gay brother’s wedding. Should have to show ID to vote. Don’t know enough about care of elderly to really comment other than to say that many nursing homes should be shut down, standards raised, and in-home care providers monitored more closely. Lots of them ripping off taxpayers.

SpiritofPearl

Against abortion for whom? Since you have never and will never be pregnant, what does that mean in practice?

If a woman finds out late in pregnancy through genetic testing not reliable earlier in pregnancy that her fetus is defective, what about that situation? If forced birthing is your solution, who pays to raise the child? My observation is that many of those children become wards of the state, so the taxpayers pay in the end.

Good on you for attending your brother’s wedding! Are he and his spouse integrated into the extended family?

SeeItMyWay

Most definitely integrated. At all family functions.

SpiritofPearl

You consistently conflate opinion with fact, just like the Game Show Host.

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